Blogging Tips :: These Bad Blogging Tips are Out. Here's what's IN.

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I feel like a bit of a grandma when it comes to blogging, I have to say. 14+ years of blogging and a lot has changed. While I didn’t have any mentors for blogging when I was starting out, or that many blogs that I could follow for blogging tips, there were things that I learnt and heard along the way that would definitely not tell any of my blogging clients today about.

Here are some bad blogging tips that I received back in the day when I started REALLY wanting to grow my blog. And why they’re now OUT. Aaaaaand what to do instead.

❌ Out: Stuff your blog posts with keywords to rank higher

✅ In: Naturally weaving in a few keywords

Because Google knows when you’re trying to stuff them. And it’s not a good look.

Overloading your posts with keywords used to be a common strategy to boost SEO back in the day, but it now can lead to penalties from search engines for keyword stuffing.

Instead: Focus on creating high-quality content that naturally has your relevant keywords sprinkled throughout the content. Write for your audience first and foremost; Google’s algorithms are smart enough to recognise valuable content without excessive keyword stuffing. You shouldn’t even really be able to tell what the keywords for a blog post are unless you really think about it.

❌ Out: Just post a lot of posts

✅ In: Quality is better than quantity

10 great blog posts are better than 50 blergh blog posts. Why? Quantity alone doesn’t guarantee engagement on your blog posts or traffic to your posts. Readers are more likely to return and engage with content that provides real value, and they will know immediately when it’s just meh.

Instead: Focus on producing fewer, but really good blog posts. Each post should be well-researched (if you need to research for it, that is), engaging, entertaining, informative … whatever the goal of that blog post, make sure it’s that whole-heartedly.

❌Out: Any backlink will do

✅ In: Higher quality backlinks are far better.

Low-quality backlinks from irrelevant or spammy sites can harm your site’s SEO and also your website’s reputation. And we definitely don’t want that! Guest posting and naturally sharing other great content on the internet is a far better way to get backlinks.

Try to prioritize earning backlinks from reputable, relevant sites through guest posting, collaborations, or sharing valuable content that people actually want to share on their own websites and blogs. Quality over quantity applies here too.

❌Out: Don’t worry about mobile or tablet

✅ In: Optimise for different devices

With more users accessing the internet via mobile devices or tablets, a responsive design is absolutely crucial for making sure your readers actually stick around. How many times have you bailed on a website coz the mobile version was naff?

Instead: Ensure your blog is responsive and mobile-friendly. Most website and blog builders/platforms have this automatically sewn in, as it were, but you can test your site on different devices and screen sizes to ensure it loads quickly and displays properly everywhere.

❌ Out: Your blog is enough

✅ In: You need more than your blog

Even with great SEO, your blog ain’t enough. Sorry to say! There are SO many more blogs out there that you need to think about different ways of engaging with your audience and drawing those people in.

Simply publishing content on your blog isn’t enough to stand out. But it’s not all doom and gloom!

Instead: Try to diversify how you’re getting traffic to your blog. Think about using social media, email marketing, podcasts, Pinterest, or video content to reach more people.

❌ Out: Prioritize your content for search engines like Google

✅ In: Write for your people!

Your audience and your community are far more important. And actually? Google will reward you for that anyway. Focusing solely on SEO can lead to content that’s optimised for search engines but lacks genuine value and connection for readers. These days, Google is picking up on this a lot more, which is great.

Instead: Create content that addresses your audience’s interests, as you would, but also make sure that you’re writing in a way that is (hopefully) going to engage with them, and that they will enjoy reading. Pop your personality into your content and see how much better it does!

Okay, so these were bad blogging tips I heard, and some which I acted upon, back in the day. While some of these tactics might have worked in the early 2000s, these days we need to be careful how we’re putting content out there. Hopefully, these bad blogging tips aren’t ones that you’ve been doing, but if they are, hey, don’t worry about it! Now you have some alternatives to try out and see if it makes a difference for our blog.

Care to share? What’s something you used to do on your blog that you don’t do anymore?